c. 2005 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) The United Church of Christ has decided not to join a growing movement to divest in companies operating in Israel _ at least for now _ but has promised to use “economic leverage” in pursuit of Middle East peace.
On Tuesday (July 5), delegates at the UCC’s General Synod in Atlanta rejected an immediate rush to divestment and instead endorsed corporate pressure against companies that profit from violence committed by either Israelis, Palestinians or neighboring Arab states.
If those actions _ which could include shareholder resolutions _ fail, the church could seek to divest, or pull investments, from key companies, but only as a last resort.
“We need to be advocates for peace, for both Israel and Palestine, using a full range of strategies,” said the Rev. John Deckenback, head of the church’s Baltimore-based Central Atlantic Conference.
Jewish groups pressed the UCC not to follow Presbyterians and Anglicans in seeking to divest from Israeli companies, which they consider an ineffective and one-sided response to the violence in the Middle East.
David Elcott, the U.S. director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who spoke against divestment at the Atlanta meeting, said the church’s position was “naive” but was grateful divestment was put on hold.
“This is not about a win or loss for us; we are in this because we believe peace is possible,” Elcott said. “The UCC, in rejecting divestment, showed itself to be a partner for peace.”
The resolution, adopted by a show of hands, calls for investment in a “viable Palestinian economy,” as well as investing in groups on both sides that are working for peace. The UCC called on Israel to dismantle its controversial separation barrier that critics say runs roughshod over Palestinian lands, and denounced violence on both sides.
Not all Jewish leaders were as charitable.
“By virtue of these actions, the UCC has disqualified itself as a legitimate partner for a just and equitable peace in the Holy Land,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
The church called for separate, independent Israeli and Palestinian states. The UCC’s general minister and president, the Rev. John Thomas, said the UCC also rejected any comparisons between Israel and South African apartheid, a notion that has angered many Jewish groups.
In other business, delegates tried to defuse conservatives’ concerns that the church’s new ad campaign and its liberal reputation do not adequately convey the UCC’s Christian character.
Conservatives complained that the UCC’s “God is Still Speaking” ad campaign had replaced the church’s traditional logo, which features the cross and crown of Jesus Christ, as the denomination’s “central symbol.” And, upset with the UCC’s liberal drift, conservatives wanted to force pastors to profess Jesus Christ as “Lord and Savior.”
In a compromise resolution, delegates acknowledged “as its sole head, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior,” and “strongly” commended the use of the UCC’s traditional logo in all church publications.
The resolution encouraged _ but did not mandate _ that “all who proclaim the sovereignty of Jesus in their words to discern the implications of that proclamation for the way they live their lives.”
Leaders of the UCC’s conservative Biblical Witness Fellowship, which coordinated the resolutions over the church’s Christian identity, could not immediately be reached for comment.
MO/JL END ECKSTROM
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